In today’s episode of IT in Plain English, Tammy Ven Dange answers, “when is it time to upgrade your system?”
As with most questions I get like this for IT investments, the answer is, “It depends.”
If you’re a Not for Profit and you’re currently hosting systems on servers, you should probably consider an upgrade to the vendor’s cloud option or to move to another vendor sooner rather than later.
Why?
Because I find most Not for Profits do not have the appropriately skilled resources to manage these systems effectively for cybersecurity risks.
I also often find that these older systems are not well-designed for communicating with other systems, making it difficult to share data.
Now, if you’re already using a cloud-based software that has automatic updates, you may still need to think about an upgrade. This sometimes occurs when the vendor has different versions of their product based on either functionality and/or the number of users. The upgrade may actually reduce existing pain points or limitations.
In reality, though… my Not for Profit clients rarely ask this question. Instead, they tend to use the same system until the vendor support cycle ends, and they are forced to either upgrade the system or switch to another one.
Or even worse, they experience a cybersecurity breach on a system that hasn’t been supported in years. Then, they are forced to find the finances to support this mandatory investment at short notice.
It is my recommendation instead that you include IT investments into your strategic plans rather than being forced to react with a mandatory upgrade.
And to reiterate – if you are currently hosting systems yourselves on servers, the time to upgrade is likely now.
So, there you have it in plain English.
If you have an IT question you want answered, feel free to connect with me here on my website or on LinkedIn and send me a message. I just might answer it on this show.
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Tammy Ven Dange is a former charity CEO, Not for Profit Board Member and IT Executive. Today she helps NFPs with strategic IT and data decisions.
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